


Happiness Found Through Family

by GrimSylphie



Series: Finding Happiness [5]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Booker | Sebastien le Livre-centric, Gen, Heart-to-Heart, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Minor Booker Whump, References to Depression
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:15:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25972738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrimSylphie/pseuds/GrimSylphie
Summary: Andromache arrived without a word on a Tuesday afternoon. Booker finds her at his doorstep eating a croissant when he returns home with his son from daycare.Or Booker’s family is starting to return but that doesn’t mean things will go smoothly
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Booker | Sebastien le Livre, Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko, Booker | Sebastien le Livre/Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolo di Genova
Series: Finding Happiness [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1875796
Comments: 36
Kudos: 284





	Happiness Found Through Family

**Author's Note:**

> Another part done. Booker is out there living his best life when Andy comes. With Andy comes a lot of opinions. Booker is finally in a place mentally and emotionally where he can share those opinions.

Andromache arrived without a word on a Tuesday afternoon. Nile hadn’t even been aware of her plans so Booker had no warning. Booker finds her at his doorstep eating a croissant when he returns home with André from daycare. 

“Papa! There’s a strange lady at our door.” André shouted. Booker looked up from where he was fishing his keys out of his pocket, as Andy lowered her sunglasses. They both took in the other’s appearance for a moment, eyes widening in shock. 

Booker seemed to recover first, at least enough to speak. “Andomache, I didn’t expect you.” He stated trying to figure out what to do. If he had already been inside he could have hidden André from her but now it was too late. She would ask questions and she would know if he was lying. His only saving grace was that Quynh was out of town until Friday. He didn’t want to be party to that reunion if he could help it.

“I didn’t really expect a kid. Where’d you get him?” Andy asked, eyes taking over André and Booker. Booker had his work back slung across his body and André’s little backpack over his one arm. It didn’t quite fit his broad shoulders but he made it work. 

Booker gave her a dirty look and hoisted André up on his hip. He walked toward the door in the hopes of having her move to the side. “Andy, this in André Le Livre. My son.” He added. “Biologically.”

He leaned down to André to continue introductions while Andy took that in. “André, this is Andromache, we can her Andy. She’s one of papa and Aunty Nile’s friends. She travels all over the world with Aunt Nile.”

André’s eyes widened and he offered Andy a huge smile with the innocence only a small child could have. “You know Aunty Nile? Why didn’t she come with you? And why does your name sound like mine?” André adored Nile because she always sent him postcards when she could sneak away and she brought him gifts when she visited every six months or so.

Andy stood up without question and allowed Booker to open the door. She didn’t seem to know how to answer André’s barrage of questions. If Booker recalled, she wasn’t that comfortable with kids. 

Andy barely heard the questions André asked. Once Booker mentioned that he was his she was hit with a thousand questions of her own. Who was his mother? Where was his mother? Why didn’t Nile say anything?

Booker for his part was amused by Andy’s speechlessness. He knew he would be interrogated later so he figured why not allow André to have fun now. “Andy, I believe it is rude not to answer questions.” Booker smirked and opened the door allowing her in.

She looked like a fish for a second. She clearly did not expect Booker to feed her to the proverbial wolf. “I do know Nile. I didn’t tell her I was coming. I’m sure she would have joined if she knew. I don’t know why our names are similar. I’m sure your father could tell us.”

Booker set André’s bag and his own on a hook and then set André down. “Why don’t you wash up and then we can go have an afternoon snack and you can interrogate Andy.” He offered.

André nodded solemnly and went off on his mission. 

Booker turned on Andy. “Andromache, it’s not that I’m not pleased to see you. I was worried I might never see you again, honestly. It’s just, you couldn’t have called? You know Nile has my number.” 

“I didn’t think I had to Book.” She replied, defensive. “How the hell was I supposed to know you were playing house.” 

Booker’s gaze turned ice cold. He had not suffered alone for five years and cared for André as a single parent, albeit one with a great support system to have Andy tear that all down. He knew she hated being out of the loop but this is what his exile demanded. He took a deep breath the way Doctor Auclair taught him and considered what to say. When he had it he spoke sternly and with confidence. “Andromache, I am only going to say this once. I fucked up. I know that. You know that. We can discuss that and everything that has happened since after André goes to bed but until that time you are a treasured guest and I am a single father doing his best to raise his son. So please do not act as if I am just playing at this to pass the time.” 

Andy looked a little taken aback. Booker generally didn’t talk back to her like that. She was usually both his sister and the boss so she had final word. Here, in his home it was different. 

Before long André was back with a shout. “Papa, what are we going to have for a snack?”

Booker softened immediately. “Andy is a big fan of sweets. I thought we might have the leftover madeleines from last night’s desserts.”

André nodded. “Yes, of course. Come on Andy, I’ll show you to the balcony where we have snack time. Then you will tell me where you and Aunt Nile travelled recently!” He grabbed Andy’s hand with an eagerness and innocence only a child could have and took her to the balcony doors.

Booker couldn’t help much smile at the sight. Andy was used to her intimidating ‘Don’t fuck with me vibe.’ scaring off everyone around her. Little did she know André had grown up trying to charm the only woman more intimidating than Andy. 

He was fortunate that Quynh had moved into her own place last year. It happened after André had found her mission gear hidden under her bed. He had gotten the locked box that held her sword half open and scared Booker half to death. She still came by for dinner whenever she was home. At least with this Andy wouldn’t find her things. Booker quickly hid away the few pictures he had of the the two of them. The last thing he wanted was to come between those two powerhouses. When they finally met it would be because Quynh wanted to see Andy, not because he fucked up. 

He grabbed the madeleines and appropriate plates and cutlery and joined André and Andy on the balcony. “Papa! Andy said she and Nile travelled with their friends through Belarus and Portugal recently!”

Booker smiled. “Did they? I believe you received a postcard from Portugal last week so we’ll have to see if she had time pick one up in Belarus.” 

“Of course.“ André nodded. “When I grow up I plan to see the whole world like Papa and Aunt Nile.” He proudly told Andy. 

“That sounds great.” Andy answered, her smile slightly forced. 

The sight of her doing her best to interact with a small child was almost worth the surprise visit Booker decided as he watched André pepper Andy with questions throughout the afternoon, into the evening, during dinner, and all the way until he had to get ready for bed. 

Booker finally returned to the living room where he had left Andy an hour before to prepare André for bed and read him a story. Andy was drinking water and looking somewhere between pleased and pissed. She must have realized he didn’t have any alcohol.

“Thank you for holding off, André is still so young, I don’t think he’s ready to know the full truth. I really am so happy to see you.” Booker admitted. He wanted to hug her but he was still exiled. He wasn’t sure his affections will be permitted.

“What the fuck happened to you these past ten years? Nile said you were doing better but she didn’t mention any of... this.” She gestured vaguely around her.

“I’m not sure how best to explain it. I’m worried you’ll think I’m lying... or that this is just some ploy. Or worse you’ll tell Nicky and Joe and they’ll jump to conclusions.” Booker admitted, looking down at the floor as he took a seat on the chair across from where Andy lounged on the couch.

“Well whatever you say will probably make a hell of a lot more sense than what little I know now. Hell, Booker, I thought you didn’t plan on sleeping with women after your wife died. Did you get someone knocked up?” Andy asked, clearly frustrated by the situation.

“No, no!” Booker laughed. “You have it all wrong. I haven’t slept with anyone since before the last time you saw me.” He hadn’t been able to bring himself to be intimate with Joe and Nicky during their brief reunion before Merrick. He knew he planned to betray them and it didn’t feel right to be with them knowing that.

“Book, it takes two to make a kid last I checked so I think you better start explaining or at least finding me some booze.” Andy replied, annoyed.

“Ahhh, well you could ask my neighbors since I don’t have any.” She leveled a glare at him. 

“All right, all right. You must promise me that you won’t share what I tell you with Nicky and Joe. If and when they hear it, it must come from me.” Booker offered leaning back in the chair.

“Sebastien...” Andy objected. 

“No, Andy.” Booker argued giving no quarter. “Promise me.”

“Fine.” Andy replied with what Booker could swear was a pout. He raised an eyebrow. “I promise.”

“Great!” Booker clapped his hands together. “Now don’t interrupt.” He settled into his chair ready to tell the story. “It was two months after you left. I was drinking and wallowing and not paying enough attention to my surroundings. I was taken.” 

The look in Andy’s eyes shifted slightly. A kidnapped immortal was never a good thing. “Apparently, that woman who called herself a doctor while torturing Nicky and Joe survived and found new backers for her research.” Booker continued. “I guess I was the easiest target since she didn’t want to risk trying to keep us all under control. She sedated me and performed all sorts of experiments on me. I honestly wasn’t awake for most.” He admitted. Andy was clenching her fist. He wasn’t sure if she was angry they hadn’t killed Kozak or just angry she didn’t know. 

Booker got up to get a cup of water, his throat sore at the memory of it. “So one day, I wake up because someone didn’t dose me right and I manage to get out with only the records they had left in the room with me. The rest were burned.” He didn’t men to on the help he had getting out from Quynh or how Quynh had been the one to remove the tubes keeping him sedated and had torched the place. 

Andy interrupts then. “Shit, Book. I had no idea.”

“I know.” Booker laughs slightly hysterical. “Honestly it’s a blessing I was unconscious for most of it. There’s an irony in being subjected to the very torture my actions nearly sentenced Nicky and Joe to.”

“So how does that explain the kid?” She asked.

“Ah... Well, I began to feel like shit long after my body should have healed from the damage to it. I was throwing up, food didn’t taste right, it was just all around miserable. I figured the only logical explanation was that something had been done to me. So I looked at the records and apparently, she did some stuff out of a horror movie. She grew the internal bits needed for a kid from my cells and then made some eggs and stuck the samples she had left over from Nicky and Joe in. Put it all in me and let me go.” 

Andy raised an eyebrow. “Are you trying to say that you’re the kid’s mother?”

“Yes.” Booker laughed at Andy’s grimace. “Also, you can call him André, I named him after you after all.”

“And that actually worked?” Andy seemed to ignore Booker’s jab. 

Booker shrugged. “According to the records the first try was a failure but André is proof that it worked well enough.”

Realization dawned on Andy’s face. “So you’re saying Joe or Nicky is a father? And you didn’t tell them?” She shouted, louder than necessary.

“Shhh...” Booker put his finger to his mouth to silence her before she woke André up. “As far as we can tell without submitting our DNA somewhere, he’s probably both via double fertilization. It’s not something that would normally happen naturally but nothing about Andre’s birth was natural.”

“Sebastien, they deserve to know.” Andy chided.

“I know that Andy.” Booker looked down. “I know they deserve to know but I was exiled and I wouldn’t be able to handle it if they took him away.”

Andy sighed. “Book, they’re upset and feeling betrayed. They aren’t monsters.”

“I know.” Booker nodded in understanding. “Logically I know that but... I can’t help but fear. Beyond that, I don’t want them to feel an obligation to let me back in to their lives early just because of this.”

Andy rolled her eyes. “I think you may just be making excuses for yourself.” She looks Booker up and down. “Is he like us?”

Booker shrugs. “I don’t know. I won’t know until he dies which will hopefully be a long time from now. It’s not like we can measure it. I have suspicions he may heal fast but he thankfully hasn’t received a wound large enough to definitively say.” By now he had seen his son fall every now and again but he never seemed to have lasting injuries, maybe a cut that would bleed a few drops but nothing sustained for long periods of time. “Also, if I’m making excuses, you can include not wanting Nicky and Joe to feel the pain of losing a child in there. If André is mortal he will live and die in one hundred years.”

Andy had seen how Booker’s previous children had resented him and knew that he more than anyone wouldn’t wish that fate upon his fellow immortals. Still, it wasn’t his choice. “It’s not your decision to make for them, Sebastien.”

Booker seethed. He knew that. He thought every day about calling them or just sending them a picture of André but he didn’t want to lose his son or to have Nicky and Joe hate him more. He was always a coward and he freely admitted that. He had to be strong for André though. “I know that. It’s not a simple solution. If Nicky and Joe want to talk to me they are free to do so but I won’t put André in the middle of this. I have to do what’s best for him. Maybe I should have come home when I found out but I didn’t and now I am the only parent André knows. I won’t have him grow up in a home where other father’s see him as an obligation or resent him. If and when they contact me, I will tell them and we will work out how they fit in André’s life. Otherwise they can wait until André is old enough to make his own decisions on the matter.” 

Booker was firm in a way he never was with Andy. Based on the look on her face she was somewhat surprised by his strong feelings. He didn’t want her to think he didn’t welcome her though. It was just where André was concerned she had no say. “Now, would you like to stay the night? I have a guest bedroom and we can discuss something else. I really have missed you.”

Andy let out a bark of laughter. “Sure, Book. I’d love to catch up.” She took a sip of her water. “Motherhood really has changed you, hasn’t it. I’ve never seen you so confident and committed. Not even with your other children.”

Booked blushed. “It’s not motherhood. It’s therapy. Nile convinced me to go and honestly, it’s really helpful.”

Andy looked inquisitive. “Nile’s mentioned all of us needing therapy before but last I checked that was for crazy people.”

Booker shook his head. “Nah Boss, that’s not the case anymore. It’s really for anyone. It gives you an unbiased perspective. Mine had a ton of advice that helped with my depression. I was lucky to find someone who fit my personality right away. I feel so much better for it because I know how to cope when I get depressed without alcohol or selling my family out to a corrupt pharmaceutical giant.”

“Hmm...” Andy seemed to take that in. 

Booker laughed. “So tell me, how is having a new member of the team after so long?” 

“Nile is a lot.” Andy said thoughtfully. Booker laughed. “She’s so upbeat and full of life. She’s so sure of right and wrong. She’s so inquisitive. We have to take turns answering her questions because she just has so many. I’m not sure if it’s my age catching up with me but I never remember you being so exhausting.”

Booker looked down for a moment. “Andy, I was suffering from PTSD and depression topped with major abandonment issues and a touch of alcoholism.” Booker offered honestly. “I was hung by the last group I unwillingly joined for trying to survive. I was afraid of being alone. I didn’t ask questions because I didn’t want to annoy you. I had so many but I just observed because I was afraid if I asked I’d be alone forever.”

“You never told us that.” Andy looked at him with sadness in her eyes. “We wouldn’t have done that.”

“I know.” Booker smiled. It didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Of course I know that now. I didn’t know that then though and even if I had I don’t think I would have truly believed it. Fear makes you irrational. I didn’t talk to you about my desire to help people at the cost of my life because I was afraid of being told no, or worse stopped. Instead I betrayed you and wound up as alone as I always feared I’d be.”

Neither spoke after that. There was a long silence between them. After a few minutes Andy finally spoke up. “Boy, we’re really keeping it light tonight, aren’t we Book.”

He laughed. “Yes, well on that subject tell me all the shitty things I have to look forward to.”

“Ugh!!” Andy let out at overexaggerated cry of annoyance. “It’s exhausting! I am always tired. I need way more sleep. They make me wear a stupid bullet proof vest on missions. They never let me keep going when I cut myself because one time I didn’t realize I’d been cut and passed out from blood loss. It’s miserable and I hate it.” her smile betrayed her somewhat.

Booker smiled back. “But?”

“But I haven’t felt more alive in years Book!” Andy shouted with a laugh. Booker joining in a moment later.

“I did come visit for a reason beyond just looking at your ugly mug again.” Andy admitted once they quieted down.

Booker sighed dramatically. “And here I had hoped you just missed me.”

“I did of course but, being mortal made me think about what’s important to me.” She admitted.

“And?” Booker asked.

“I’d like to try and find Quynh before I die.” Andy answered.

Booker took a deep breath and let it out as a sigh. He didn’t think he could ever understand what was between Andy and Quynh and if he was honest he didn’t want to. A small part of him hoped they would find each other organically without his interference. That was hard when Quynh lived just down the road from him. 

“How do you think I can help?” He asked. “Didn’t you take Copley on as your tech expert? He probably has access to better toys for finding things lost at sea.”

“He does. I want to hear about the dreams though.” Booker glared when Andy asked that. He had spent more of his immortal life so drunk he couldn’t dream because Andy and the others couldn’t deal with hearing about it and now she wanted to know. Andy seemed to understand the look he gave. “Nile said she doesn’t really dream of drowning anymore. She said she didn’t have that many dreams of her drowning to begin with. I need the details of the dreams so I can get a clue as to how deep she might be.”

Booker sighed. Of course Nile wasn’t dreaming of drowning. She knew, as Booker knew, that Quynh hadn’t been drowning for ten years. “I don’t dream of her anymore Andy. I haven’t dreamed of her in five years.” Booker admitted.

“Do you think she died?” Andy asked, slightly afraid.

Booker shook his head. “I don’t think so. I would like to believe I would have felt it.” 

Andy dropped the subject and Booker took that as his cue to go to bed. On his way he sent a text to Quynh.

[Andy’s here. She said she wants to find you.]

He didn’t receive a response before turning out the lights for the night. When he woke in the morning he had a single message waiting.

[Mission complete. Coming home early. Send Andy to my place at 19:00 with a key to get in.]

“Crazy and dramatic as always.” Booker remarked to himself before getting up to start his day.

If Quynh and Andy reunite that night when Andy walks into Quynh’s place only to find the other woman posed dramatically and wrapped in nothing but a piece of silk with flowers and weapons strewn at her feet then Booker hoped he’d never have to hear about it.

**Author's Note:**

> Quynh and Andy’s story probably has a lot of emotion meaning a lot of crying an bloodshed. Since this is about Booker and André (and soon Nicky and Joe) it didn’t make sense to add it. There might be single lines peppered into future stories explaining what became of their relationship but beyond that it’s up to your imagination.
> 
> Next part is Nicky and Joe coming around to wanting to see Booker and hopefully a reunion.


End file.
